OKLAHOMA CITY — When the Oklahoma City Thunder was scoring for the sixth consecutive possession in the second quarter en route to pummeling the Mavericks, Rick Carlisle called a timeout — again.

And he laced into his team — again.

And he got the same, unproductive results — again.

Perhaps this was inevitable. The Mavericks were finishing up a longer-than-it-sounds eight-day trip to four cities with mostly miserable results. So on Monday, after playing with great gusto in the first three games on the trip, the Mavericks went belly-up.

Oklahoma City played like a team with the second-best record in the Western Conference, waxing the Mavericks in every way imaginable for a 112-91 victory at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

The Mavericks simply couldn’t finish this trip. They couldn’t finish in the first two games when they lost on last-gasp plays. And they couldn’t finish in the finale.

They gave up the paint like they were going to have to pay property tax if they spent too much time in there. The Thunder blew open a tie game with a 9-0 run late in the first quarter and extended the lead to 27 late in the second and 33 in the third.

“When we substituted, we struggled,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Not having Vince [Carter] out there was a big factor. But we got to play better, too. That’s where it’s at.”

Carter missed the game with an illness. He’s been the leader of the bench that has been solid more often than not lately.

Asked if the level of competitiveness was adequate, Carlisle said:

“I’m going to have to defer on that until I look at the film. What I did see is a lot of untimely turnovers that led to big problems. When you put these guys in the open floor with catastrophic turnovers, they’re going to make you look bad. I think that was it more than anything.

“But obviously when you get down 30 in a game, you’re not competing well enough. There’s no question about that.”

The Mavericks could have skipped the last leg of the trip and saved face.

At least they didn’t have to worry about losing in overtime, like they did in the first two meetings with the Thunder.

“Our second unit today obviously was in trouble without Vince, without [Chris] Kaman,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “I didn’t think we had enough playmakers out there. And we had some stupid turnovers that always get us in trouble.”

And the defense was miserable. Through three quarters, the Thunder shot 52 percent and outrebounded the Mavericks, 36-28. The Mavericks had 12 turnovers at that point for 20 Thunder points.

“Even when we had our defense set, we didn’t get much going,” Nowitzki said. “They got 3’s, they got layups, they got backdoor cuts. We were ball-watching. Just an all-around tough night.”

At least Nowitzki said his strained right adductor muscle gave him no problems.

So in the end, it was a wipeout of a road trip. Going 1-3 probably hurts even more when the Mavericks look back on the two losses that they opened with at Portland and Golden State. Both games could have easily been wins.

Their playoff hopes, already faint, grew considerably bleaker with those two hard-luck losses.

But one like Monday night reinforces the fact that they bear no resemblance to a playoff team at this point in the season.

“First two games were murder,” said Shawn Marion, who had a season-high 23 points. “This should have easily been a 3-1 trip.”

The way the Mavericks played Monday, it looks more like they got what they deserved.

“I’ve been with teams where we’ve been able to come back from a hole that big,” Marion said. “But that ain’t us, right now. This game was lost in the second quarter.”

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